In the Times today is an article by Alan Milburn. He’s touted as an arch-Blairite by the press and in a lot of respects exemplifies the progressive politics that keep me aligned with the Labour Party.
His Article has a lot to say about what we need if we’re to win the next election and what the issues now are.
Here’s a key paragraph:
How we respond to globalisation, not by resorting to economic protectionism but through open markets, free trade and a new accent on skills and employability. How we build genuinely inclusive societies when there are huge pressures going in the opposite direction, notably a widening gap between rich and poor. How we deal with the causes and consequences of global terrorism and get the trade-offs right between protecting wider society and defending civil liberties. How we avoid racial conflict in an era of global migration. How we deal with the challenge of demographic and environmental change. And, in particular, how we fulfil the desire people have for greater control in their lives whether through more choice over how services are delivered or through a better balance between work and family life. These were not the main challenges then. But they are now.
That’s progressive politics and you know what disturbs me? That’s what David Cameron sounds like. It’s a cunning play by the Tory leader - he senses that Labour is going to fracture and that in a moment of brash idiocy the New Labour project will be scrapped, or at the very least become an anathema in the eyes of those who’s ideals gave it life.
The Labour backbench will swing to the left, it will do everything it can to implode in a grotesque rite of socialist-seppuku. The challenge the party faces is in reminding them of why they were elected in the first place.
Cameron’s ready to sweep in from the wings and take the centre ground with lower taxes and public sector reform - we’re not facing the prattling of a right wing parliamentary bingo-caller, pandering to the prejudices of his diminishing and aging audience - we have an actual opponent who wants to claim progressive policies for his own and who will take the country with him.
The issues for the new political future are exactly as Alan Milburn describes them, the question is whether Labour can deal with them with the same forthright attitude that he has demonstrated.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at September 3, 2006 01:00 PM